Lies, Passions & Illusions

A critical history of 20th century political movement by the Hannah Arendt Prize-winning author of Interpreting the French Revolution.

Widely considered one of the leading historians of the French Revolution, François Furet was hailed as “one of the most influential men in contemporary France” by the New York Review of Books. In Lies, Passions, and Illusions, Furet’s presents a cohesive, late-career meditation on the political passions of the twentieth century, drawn from a wide-ranging conversation between Furet and philosopher Paul Ricoeur. Published posthumously, it is Furet’s final statement on history and politics.

With strokes at once broad and incisive, Furet examines the many different trajectories that nations of the West have followed over the past hundred years. It is a dialogue with history as it happened but also as a form of thought. It is a dialogue with his critics, with himself, and with those major thinkers—from Tocqueville to Hannah Arendt—whose ideas have shaped our understanding of the tragic dramas and upheavals of the modern era. It is a testament to the crucial role of the historian, a reflection on how history is made and lived, and how the imagination is a catalyst for political change.